[K-oneTexas]

Agreed. The hyphen is your cultural heritage ... mine came from England, Scotland and Germany mixed with East Coast American Indian. We do celebrate this with our holidays and our food and other customs, a way to honor our individual ancestors. Your link to your past ... those who came before you. Many nationalities came to this country and made one citizenry, American, to make this country great. Now we throw the old ones away for the latest influx of those who want to be Americans ... yes, I know some come only for the money and not citizenship but many still come for citizenship.

However when you introduce yourself, when I introduce myself or am asked what is my identity I (and others should say) proudly "I Am An AMERICAN". Not a hyphenated American or anything else. How many hyphenated French are there? Germans? British? We could go on and on.

Only in America do we split ourselves into pockets of this and that and never attempt to become whole, to become one nation.

[SandRat]

So true I’m an American of Scots, English, Irish, and German ancestors that all came to the new world not to be what they were but Americans.

[Elsiejay]

I am an American, born in the USA, second-generation from Norway on my father’s side, third generation from Norway on my nother’s side. For what possible reason would I tag myself Norwegian-American? In truth, I am a native American, and only that.